When you get through 80 tonnes of coffee beans each year, you really have to love the stuff. And we do.

But it’s not just about sourcing some of the world’s best coffee beans. We also work hard to ensure that our coffee farmers, the guys who work tirelessly to bring us the best, are getting a good deal and that the growers are treated with respect and decency.

For us, it’s about fairness from field to café-counter. And Ben decided the only way to ensure this philosophy would be followed was to visit Nicaragua, home to the plantations producing our Single Estate filter coffee and 30% of our Benugo blend.

Ben began his trip by visiting La Virgen coffee estate (in the mountains north of Matagalpa) where Henry Hueck & his wife Gabbi, along with a team of more than 1,500 people, work to grow, harvest, dry, and mill the beans that make up our Single Estate filter coffee.

Henry ensures they are paid well for the beans they grow and harvest and that their families have access to the amenities needed for a good quality of life, providing schooling, a clinic, shelter and food.

Henry and his family began work on the plantation in 1995, with the promise to always keep “social, ecological and quality conscious values in mind.”

After a week getting to know our coffee farmers, Ben landed back in the UK, happy to have seen for himself that the beans we buy through the relationships built in Nicaragua will not only keep a smile on the faces of our farmers (and their families) but will also make one of the best coffees you have ever tasted!

We continue to work very closely with Henry – not only to ensure our product is the quality we need, but also to help support his wider work in the community. The kids at the La Virgen school designed the stickers that are on the front of our retail coffee bags. And last year, we donated £5,000 to the ‘laptop for every child’ programme, which purchased a computer for every student at the school to help them with their studies and their future.